Wright-Martin Aircraft Corporation was a short-lived aircraft manufacturing business venture between the

Wright Company The Wright Company was the commercial aviation business venture of the Wright Brothers, established by them on November 22, 1909, in conjunction with several prominent industrialists from New York and Detroit with the intention of capitalizing o ...

(after Orville Wright sold the Wright Company and divested himself from it) and Glenn L. Martin.

History

Company officials merged their respective organizations, the

and the Glenn L. Martin Company, in 1916. The company continued and escalated the

Wright brothers patent war The Wright brothers patent war centers on the patent they received for their method of airplane flight control. The Wright brothers were two Americans who are widely credited with inventing and building the world's first flyable airplane and mak ...

with other aircraft manufacturers, until its resolution—under duress from the government, in 1917, at the start of U.S. involvement in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

—by the

cross-licensing A cross-licensing agreement is a contract between two or more parties where each party grants rights to their intellectual property to the other parties. Patent law In patent law, a cross-licensing agreement is an agreement according to which two ...

agreement developed and managed through the Manufacturers Aircraft Association.Roland, Alex (foreword by

Jimmy Doolittle James Harold Doolittle (December 14, 1896 – September 27, 1993) was an American military general and aviation pioneer who received the Medal of Honor for his daring raid on Japan during World War II. He also made early coast-to-coast flights ...

)
Chapter 2: "War Business: A Laboratory and Licensing; Committees and Engines, 1915-1918"
in ''Model Research'' - Volume 1, SP-4103 National Aeronautics and Space Administration, retrieved December 4, 2017 A license-built version of the Hispano-Suiza 8 was manufactured by the company under the engineering leadership of Henry M. Crane. It was used by Vought VE-7, VE-8, Boeing NB-2, and Loening M-8. By 1918, the company had a factory in Long Island City, New York. Martin soon resigned, dissolving the Wright-Martin joint enterprise within a year. The company was renamed

Wright Aeronautical Wright Aeronautical (1919–1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer headquartered in Paterson, New Jersey. It was the successor corporation to Wright-Martin. It built aircraft and was a supplier of aircraft engines to other builders in the ...

in 1919, and shifted from manufacturing aircraft to manufacturing aircraft engines, developing the pivotal

Wright Whirlwind The Wright Whirlwind was a family of air-cooled radial aircraft engines built by Wright Aeronautical (originally an independent company, later a division of Curtiss-Wright). The family began with nine-cylinder engines, and later expanded to incl ...

engines which changed aviation dramatically. Glenn Martin continued development of his Glenn L. Martin Company, which remained a major aircraft manufacturer until the 1950s and early 1960s when it also began developing rockets, missiles, and spacecraft. In 1961 the company merged with the American-Marietta Corporation to become industrial conglomerate (and continued aerospace manufacturer)

Martin-Marietta The Martin Marietta Corporation was an American company founded in 1961 through the merger of Glenn L. Martin Company and American-Marietta Corporation. In 1995, it merged with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin. History Martin M ...

which, in 1995, merged with Lockheed to become today's

Lockheed-Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is ...

, one of the United States' three remaining major large aircraft manufacturers (along with

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...

and

Northrop-Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...

).Harwood, William B., book: '' aise Heaven and Earth: The Story of Martin Marietta'' Simon & Schuster; (1993)

Aircraft

References

External links

* World War I advertisement for the Wright-Martin Aircraft Corporation - ''FIGHT or Join the Industrial Aircraft Service'', '' Popular Science'' monthly, December 1918
page 91
Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States . Wright brothers Defunct aircraft engine manufacturers of the United States American companies established in 1916 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1916 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1919 American companies disestablished in 1919 {{aero-company-stub